A New Adventure in France

We moved on last weekend and the week seems to have flown by. We have some things planned in September and won’t be moving further south until they’re done, so we moved just a couple of hours north to Sainte Foy la Grande which is about 15 miles west of Bergerac and on the south bank of the Dordogne river in the Gironde department of Nouvelle Aquitaine, very close to the borders of both the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne departments. As it was only a couple of  hours of travel, Joe rode the motorbike there rather than putting it in the trailer – an opportunity for him to ride without a pillion passenger for a change. 

Schools have gone back in France this week so the ‘switch’ marking the end of summer holidays for the French has been thrown and all the French families have departed leaving the Dutch, Germans and a few Brits. Our current site is owned by a Brit who has been here for 12 years. Talking with him it’s clear that the last two years have been very challenging and UK government late decisions on quarantine and testing on return from France have decimated his trade this year. Although we’re right on the river, it’s actually pretty shallow at this point – you could walk from one side to the other – and the current is quite strong, so no boating or paddle boarding here but we’re using this town as a base to explore other places in the area.

Sainte-Foy is a bastide town with some half-timbered buildings and a square with stone arcades but, with one long central street and a square off it, doesn’t feel like it has a real centre, perhaps because the original open market hall has been relocated from its original location in the square to the edge of town.

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Sainte-Foy is best known for its weekly Saturday market. It’s been voted France’s favourite market in previous years and the best market in the Gironde this year. It’s certainly lively and extensive, with stalls along most of the streets in the town, but nothing that makes it stand out more than some of the other larger markets we’ve visited.

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A walk on the other side of the river took us up into the gentle hills and the start of the local vineyards. We’ll be visiting more of those during our time in this area, so more to come on that subject…

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